Vested interests ‘hijacked’ farmers stir, state tells HC

INDORE: The farmers protest at Piplia mandi had turned violent posing threat to people’s life and property, thus prompting police to ‘use force’ leading to the death of five people, the state government submitted before the Indore bench of Madhya Pradesh high court on Monday.

The government was submitting its reply to petitions on farmers’ violence in Mandsaur district before the division bench of Justice PK Jaiswal and Justice Virendra Singh, who granted time to the petitioners to go through it and file any rejoinder if necessary.

The 12 page reply by the state explained the circumstances under which the police was compelled to use force in form of tear gas, lathi charge and shooting during the ten day protest, which turned violent in many areas of state.

Describing the situation at Pipliyamandi, the reply mentioned that during the agitation, agitators resorted not only to blocking the state highways, disruption of traffic, stopping of trucks, spilling their goods on the roads, setting trucks and other vehicles on fire, but also started attacking police by pelting stones. They also attacked them with fire torches, iron rods and even firearms, threatening to the life of policemen, who went there to control the situation, and also the people around them.

“They also inflicted serious losses and damages to public, private and government properties. In order to control the violent situation thus emerging, police had to use force, in course of which five agitators died and six got injured,” the reply read.

The reply also gave details of different orders passed by the state government from time to time, including the order by general administration department forming a one member committee to probe the incidents of June 7 and the order by Mandsaur district magistrate ordering magisterial inquiry into the death of Ghanshyam Dhakad, who died at MY hospital.

The state has said that since all the reliefs prayed for by the petitioner have been granted through the state government’s order, the petition is rendered infructuous and hence must be disposed of.

The two petitions were filed by Awdhesh Bhargav through Yawar Khan and Kamlesh Patidar through Ajay Bagadia.